Picnics Galore

Today I woke up and got breakfast with Hannah and Rachel, and we ate on the steps of the church in the main market place. We then knew that we had to call the Hausmeister to get him to sign some papers for our rooms in order to officially live in our rooms. Rachel was the brave one and called first. One by one, we talked to him on my phone and spoke in broken German to try and explain what we needed from him. Eventually we got the point across, and we figured the whole situation out!

We then went to Mueller to go and get some more things that we needed for our rooms, and we were just bored and decided to browse some shops!

Here's just some of what we found at Mueller:

Finally found that giant chalk for Jenna... oh wait, this is in Germany.

Hannah found a nice unicorn backpack that was very tempting!

Me and Dobby. We're best friends. No big deal. ((Don't really know why this was here, and to be honest it was sort of freaky))

Here Matt! Pow Pow Pow Ow Ow Ow!

Ken with his Boyfriend shirt on.

LOOK WHAT I FOUND!!!!!! Somewhere in the world, I know that Bubby felt the sudden feeling that all was just in the world when I found this game and picked it up.

Thought of home when I saw this, so I had to take a picture of it!

After Mueller we went to a Cafe-type place where Hannah got a smoothie and I finished drinking my ice tea of the day. It was really sunny though, and Rachel needed to run back to get her sunglasses before meeting up with Jake and Zach to have lunch down by the river!

We ran back to Hannah's and then met Zach and Jake, after much difficulty as our phones were not getting reception for a while there, to buy bread and lunch meat for our picnic lunch. We got everything we needed, left for the Neckar River and picked a spot to sit and eat. It was a pretty good, and cheap, lunch! It was nice to relax by the river, minus all of the bees that kept buzzing around. Surprisingly, the bees sought out the lunch meat and the bread before the Nutella that we had bought. Stupid bees.

After lunch we stopped in the gummy bear store and purchased some gummies.

We then dropped Hannah off at her place, as she was meeting some old family friends there. Then the rest of us went to buy some candy with the money that we got back from returning our bottles!

Then it was off to the Schloss (castle). We had gone up the other day, and were going to try and take a different way up to the castle. But alas, we got lost again. We ended up walking too far in one direction, and actually passed up the castle entirely! So we had to backtrack and went through a pretty spiffy tunnel to get around to the right side of the castle before finding some pretty shady looking stairs that we presumed would lead us up to the castle. We decided to take the stairs up and see where it would take us.

The stairs never seemed to end. Zach and Rachel were up front, and I was in back with Jake while I was dying from all of the stairs! Who needs Pilates videos when I have Tübingen? I thought I was going to have an asthma attack, but luckily I made it through alright. We finally reached the stairs and made it to the castle. We were behind the back of the castle, overlooking a small courtyard where people could participate in archery, as we had seen the other day.

This is me after conquering the stairs!

Rachel seems pretty at ease!

We only stayed here for a minute or two, then we made our way up to a small courtyard where we could sit on the grass and lay in the sun or sit on a bench. So we had ourselves a candy picnic!

Here's everyone having their candy! (I was on the grass taking the picture).

Here is the view from the courtyard where we had our candy picnic!

We finished our picnic and then just laid out in the grass. After a while, Hannah joined us and then we decided to go and get something to eat. We found a place right next to Hannah's building that sold really cheap pizza and other foods, so we bought food there and went up to Hannah's to eat! While we were eating, we met one of Hannah's roommates, and she later let us borrow a German movie that we watched. But before we could watch the movie, Jake and Zach had to fix the TV, which, if you ask Hannah and Rachel, was more entertaining than any movie!

The movie was titled "keinohrhasen", and it was a pretty good movie that I would suggest to anyone who speaks German. The girl in the film was REALLY hard to understand though, because she spoke so fast, so we turned the German subtitles on!

After the movie, we all went our separate ways and now I am here blogging and waiting perhaps for someone to go on Skype so that I can wish them a Happy Birthday and a Happy Gotcha Day to someone else! (Everyone here wishes you both a Happy Birthday and Gotcha Day too!)

I may not blog until later tomorrow, we may be going out tomorrow night. We'll see!

Goodnight for now!

Fun with German Bums!

Here's me from the Wein Fest the other day, but I didn't get the chance to post this one:

Now, on to today!!

I slept really well last night, a little too well in fact. I did not wake up to my alarm this morning. I hurried to get ready as last night after going out we all made plans to meet at the Neckar Bruecker (Neckar Bridge) bus stop to go and pay our first months rent! I got ready and out the door in almost no time at all, and I managed to stop into a bakery to get breakfast before I got to the bus stop. I realized then that I was a little too early,  so I made the decision to go and get some tea to go with my breakfast! I then saw Jake and Zach who came with me for my tea run! 

We met up with Hannah and Rachel shortly after and all took the bus to pay our rent. The ride wasn't long, and we found the correct building without too much trouble! We went to talk to a lady at one of the desks, who sorted out our paperwork and led us the way to pay our rent for this month (This was the only month that we needed to front the cash. In the future the rent will just be automatically withdrawn from my German account). One by one we lined up to pay rent. Rachel went first and as she was talking to the lady at the counter, something made the lady realize that she was American because she switched to English.

Normally, it would be nice to hear some English, but not so much for us. 

The big joke for us is that any time we have an epic German failure, which may or may not include the switching of conversation to English, a giant Professor DeMaris (our German Professor at Valpo) appears in the sky and hits a big buzzer that signifies just how much we failed. Now Rachel was not the first one to receive the buzzer, but I felt that since I have not mentioned it prior to this, I probably should do so now. In blogs to come I might reference the buzzer or the giant DeMaris in the sky, so it is best to be prepared!

I paid my rent in turn and we left to go back to Hannah's place. When we got off the bus, Hannah and I went into the Markt right by her building so that we could send in our DAAD papers. We all went into the market, and Hannah and I split from the rest of the group to go into the Post in order to figure out how to mail in everything. We filled out our paperwork, bought our envelopes and stamps, and as we were going to bring them up to the counter to mail them out, we heard a lovely man with flowers in his hair...

This man looked sort of like a hippie, and most likely was filled with some sort of substance that made him just a little crazy. He was sort of rambling at first, and then really loudly said, 

"Entschuldigung! Ich liebe euch!"

He then proceeded to swing his leg over the poles that told the customers where to stand in line, which were fairly high off the ground. After this he started saying some obscene things that I do not feel comfortable repeating with so many young readers! Essentially, he had heard a woman talking on her cell phone and said that he would take the cell phone to bed and.......

So yes! What a fun day at the Post!

After that we went to Jake's room to see what it looked like, as we had only ever been to Hannah's room, Rachel's room, or my own. We took the bus to his and stayed there for a little while.

Jake and Zach had to leave to go to Stuttgart to see their friend, so Rachel, Hannah, and I went to Kaufland to do some grocery shopping, as eating out every night is expensive here!

We successfully got on all the right buses, and once there I bought some pasta, rice, snacks, drinks, sauces, and even a Pizza-Kit (or as I like to call it: A box of LIES). 

This happy little misleading box of lies shows a delicious pizza on the front, but alas contains no cheese! What is a pizza without cheese, I ask you. I suppose it will be alright, due to the fact that cheese makes me sick anyway, but the Chicago girl in me feels very strongly about this!!

To go along with the box of lies, is the misleading water bottle!

The water bottle clearly says STILL on it, but there was nothing still about it! Bubbles everywhere.

But anyway, enough ranting about misleading packaging.

We paid for our food and caught the correct bus (again) to my house and unloaded everything.

On a separate note, I realized that I had not taken pictures of my room yet, so here it is!

Here are the stairs heading up to my room, and down to the street!

Here is the kitchen down the hall from me!

Again, the kitchen!

This is the ABSOLUT VODKA bottle filled with pills that is hanging in my kitchen for some reason... I'm a little concerned, and think that someone has some serious issues to work out!

My food cubby!

My closet!

My bookshelf and IKEA bought hamper!

My already messy desk area!

My bed!

And, most importantly: Here are some of my pictures that I brought with from home!!  I miss you all!!!

By the way, if you were wondering how bad my jeans were, here they are!

As you can see, I am utterly shocked by that rip!

After relaxing in my room for a while, we went to the bookstore around the corner-ish where Hannah and Rachel both bought books. 

In the book store I saw many things that I thought were interesting and that reminded me of home. There were a lot of Nora Roberts and Janet Evanovich  novels which reminded me of home. 

Harry Potter exists in Germany, even in Lego form!

I am considering buying one of these!!

Jenna, this says "Take a pause Beaver!", But it looks like "Bieber", so I thought of you!

We thought this was pretty funny! It says "Der Bro Code".

We then went to go get some ice cream, and sat at the steps of the nearby church while eating! We then went back to my room again and just relaxed for a while longer! We spent a long time just talking and setting up plans for the days to come!

Today I was shown this video, asking the question of why Tübingen is so hilly. I could not have asked a better question! Please enjoy the mindless singing and dancing:

WARNING: It turns into a pretty crazy dance party at the end!

Sunday Adventures!

Hi everyone! So it's really late as I am writing this, so if it is full of mistakes: Sorry!

I was woken up this morning to a combination of church bells (which were pretty soothing) and a small child outside my window saying "WUNDERBAR! WUNDERBAR! WUNDERBAR!" for about two hours straight. So overall, a strange way to start a day!

Today I started off the day going by heading out a little early and heading to the bakery for something to eat and drink before meeting Hannah and Rachel at Hannah's for the day!

My shins have been killing me all week and it has been really hard adjusting to the hilly and stone paved streets, but I have to get around, so Emily: Suck it up! Be a man! Rub some dirt in it!

I got to Hannah's and she met me downstairs and Rachel eventually came along too!

We looked pretty tired!

We decided to go to a bakery so that Hannah and Rachel could eat breakfast, and then after that we chose to spend some time down by the Neckar River before we met up with Zach and Jake at 3 to meet Dr. Malchow and the Reutlingen students at 4.

What a perfect day to go to the Neckar! And, Hannah showed me how to use my camera a little more effectively and creatively, so here are some of the shots I got!

This one is probably my favorite. It has the bright yellow building that really sticks out through all the green! I thought this was just so pretty!

Bridge near the Neckar River on the island walk way.

Me by the River!

I was playing with my camera a bit...

...and a bit more...

After we got done sightseeing we met up with Zach and Jake and then met with the Reutlingen students. Then we were shown around the city by Herr Singer, who had lived in the city at one point for thirty-five years, and was very involved in the University.

He took us up to the castle, and told us all of the history behind the Neckar River, the University itself, its' founder, the art of the city, the castle, and much more!

Here is one of the gates into the castle!

Up close, you can see (Matt) that there is a head right above the archway. This head is a Gorgon head and was placed there to keep harm out of the castle!

Another shot of the gate, with Jake looking in amazement! Ooh Aah!

Here is the view from that first gate! Quite a hike!

Here we are pretty tired after our hike! I know, I'm special.

Here are some of the buildings on the way up to the castle! I thought that all of the colors were just amazing!

Here was the crest of someone, that at this moment I cannot remember! Sorry!

Gorgon head again up close!

Here is the wall of the castle, with the tower standing on the end of the it! The other tower was blown up, as the French dug a tunnel through it and blew it up! Those crazy French!

Don't really know why I felt the need to take this picture. Just thought it was pretty!

Here is the view of Tübingen from where we hiked up to! It is no mystery where the giant blister on the bottom of my toe came from!

The inside of the castle.

Even back then they had Chokeys! Better watch myself!

After we got done being showed Tübingen, we ended up eating at the Neckarmueller again! I had the Puntensteak am Grill, which is the Turkey Steak! It was really good! Everyone had beer, as the Neckarmueller is a brewery, but I got some water and a Coke (I did try the beer, and I must say, it did not appeal to me). 

After a nice dinner we said goodbye, and all of us Tübingeners stopped in the bathrooms. It was then that I noticed that I had a huge rip in the back of my jeans which I got from catching them on the chair before eating. Rachel and Hannah graciously helped me hide it, and then it was off for a little ice cream before I got to go back to my house and change!

Started this trip with four jeans. Am now down to three.

We then all went back to Hannah's and relaxed for a while. It was a while before we decided to go out to a bar for the night. We walked around the city looking for a place to go. We finally decided on Collegium, which is just around the corner from my house. I got some drink that I don't remember the name of.

It was a fun night and now I am just sitting back at my room after a shower, blogging for all of you at home to be able to follow my adventures. 

I will write again tomorrow when I get the chance, but tomorrow will not be as exciting as we have a lot of busy work to take care of. Rent to pay, paperwork to sign, Hausmeisters to meet, and banks to visit! Wahoo!

Before I sign off, I would like to leave you with my quote of the day:

"Bin ich eine Frau? Nein."

For those of you who do not know German, feel free to look that one up! =]

Bis spaeter!